


Lay Me Down

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blood and Injury, Game Spoilers, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt No Comfort, Loyalty, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 10:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12579392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: There was something warm trickling down his cheeks. Crying? Curious. He couldn’t tell. But when he raised a hand to swipe the sensation away, his fingers came away red, and the first splotch of darkness burst into his field of vision.[Episode Ignis spoilers!]





	Lay Me Down

_Now I lay me down to sleep,_  
_I pray the Lord my soul to keep._  
_May the angels watch me through the night,_  
_and keep me in their blessed sight._

 

He had told the kings to take what they wanted. The price hadn’t mattered. Whatever came, Ignis would not regret putting the ring on his finger and he would not regret the bargain and he would die with the knowledge that he had saved Noctis’s life and _no sacrifice…_ no sacrifice was too large for that knowledge.

The pain was expected, and welcome, and… agony. White hot agony. Somehow, he managed to stay standing, even as his knees threatened to buckle beneath him. He was vaguely aware of a noise, and then realized _he_ was the one making the noise. A whine, a whimper– no. He was screaming.

His body was burning. His face was burning. He had wanted this, but there was terror on his tongue. He didn’t regret it, but he had to glance down at himself to make sure– to _see_ –

There was something warm trickling down his cheeks. Crying? Curious. He couldn’t tell. But when he raised a hand to swipe the sensation away, his fingers came away red, and the first splotch of darkness burst into his field of vision.

What? No. He couldn’t pass out. He hadn’t _done_ anything yet. The kings hadn’t _given_ him anything yet. Noctis was still here, he was still in danger– they were supposed to _give_ as well as _take_ , that was his bargain–

– his knees did fold beneath him this time. The ground was cold and wet, and the darkness across his vision was spreading. “Noct–” He reached out a hand and was frozen in place, trapped in pain so intense he couldn’t _breathe_ and the blackness kept spreading and spreading.

A smear of darkness erupted just where Noctis’s face ought to have been. Where it had been, and where Ignis couldn’t see now, and he shook his head, _hard_ , squeezed his eyes shut and reopened them. He _had_ to see him– he _had_ to protect him–

There were only swipes of color left. Noctis’s jacket, black as pitch. Dark hair wilting under the weight of the water. The look of discontent on the prince’s face as he slept.

Ignis’s eyes burned– with real tears this time, assuredly. “Noct!” He collapsed to hands and knees both and……

nothing.

No sight, no sound– wait. There was. Breathing. Gasping. Himself? He wasn’t unconscious. He was still awake. He tried to open his eyes because he had to keep fighting, kings or no kings… but his eyes were already open.

Weren’t they?

His whole face was bloody, fingers going sticky when he reached to feel for his eyes and–

Oh, _Astrals_.

 _This_ was his price.

Someone started laughing, long and low and amused in ways that made his blood go cold. His head jerked up, and equilibrium still swayed, darkness churning beneath darkness.

“Oh, _Ignis_ ,” the voice said, and Ignis knew that voice– _Ardyn_ – he was still here– Ignis slammed both hands back on the ground to try and feel his way to Noct– if he couldn’t see, he still had to get to him– “you see the price you pay for loyalty? All for _nothing_.”

His head was heavy. His heart was heavy. There were chills crawling up his spine and his hands scrabbled at the ground. Rock and water and blood. _Where_ was Noctis? He had seemed only a few inches away when he had been standing here, looking at him–

Where was the _power of the old kings_?!

“Noct,” he whispered. He would _crawl_. “Noctis. Highness,” he croaked, and his voice came out despairingly thin and too close to a sob.

“Don’t _worry._ ”

Something touched his shoulder; he jerked forward and collapsed to the ground.

“Noctis is in… _my_ capable hands.”

Falling had propelled himself forward. When he flung out a questing hand this time, he came down hard on wet fabric and and an arm, and Ignis all but threw himself over Noctis’s body. Not today. He would _not_ let this happen, he would _not_ let the kings of old _do_ this–

_Your debt has been paid, young warrior._

Ignis stiffened, one hand clutching at Noctis’s coat and the other trying to cradle his head up from the ground. “Then–” _uphold your end of the bargain,_ he started, but… _something_ changed. He couldn’t tell what. There was a shift, and he ducked his head against Noctis’s neck, covering as much of his body as he could with his own–

and nothing again. Frighteningly nothing. It was eerily silent. He sucked in a sharp breath, one that smelled like salt and blood and agony, just to prove to himself that he could hear. When he could, he listened hard… and heard nothing. He felt nothing. _Sensed_ nothing.

But his head was full of cotton. His ears were ringing now, in the silence, and his mouth tasted full of blood.

Ardyn wasn’t speaking, there was no one moving, that Ignis was certain of. Everything around them had gone, he intrinsically knew. The deal had been completed… and… he had to get Noctis to proper safety… but how… like this…

Painstakingly, slowly, he felt in his coat for his phone. It was a miracle that it still worked at all, and he had a momentary flash of panic over dialing before he remembered the voice commands. Then, he could barely raised his voice loud enough for it to understand the request. “… Call Gladio.”

The call was brief. He told him where they were and said nothing else. When he had disconnected, if he even had, the phone slipped from his fingers and crashed into the water puddles below. He was numb. He felt numb.

“Rest now… Noct…” he murmured, feeling for the prince’s shoulder, his jaw, his hair. He brushed it out of his face with shaking hands. “It’ll all be okay…”

He was aware of the ring’s weight on his finger once again. Even more slowly, as the world continued to get more and more distant from him, he dragged it from his finger. Heavy was the burden… he had willingly paid it. He would do it again in a heartbeat.

Noctis… need not know.

Swallowing, he pressed the ring into Noctis’s palm and curled his fingers around it.

He stayed awake until not only darkness, but sleep took him, too.

 

**Author's Note:**

> *incoherent noises* afjieodwhruwwweougevnnno T___________T you ever just remember how much you'll cry on December 13th
> 
> also I thought that verse was... very appropriate just saying


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